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Aquarium Care: Will need a large tank if keeping a few as they are territorial. Not to be trusted with smaller fish as they will undoubtedly be eaten. Provide hiding places large enough where they can rest upside down. May grow larger than the stated size of 30cm but this could take a few years to fulfill. Diet: Will eat most aquarium prepared foods such as flake, tablets, pellets, live and frozen. Etymology: The genus name Mystus: "Mystax" meaning whiskered (hair on the upper lip) Mystus was first used by Belon in 1553 to describe all fish with whiskers. The specific name leucophasis: leucos, white; phasis, appearance, referring to its “remarkable” colouring, “the head and fore-part of the body being bright silky-white above”. Remarks: Unusual to this family is the ability of this catfish to swim upside down, which it does for 90% of the time.

Asian Upside Down Catfish

Bagrus leucophasis, Macrones leucophasis, Mystus (Aorichthys) leucophasis

Bagridae

Asia: Irrawaddy and Sittang River basins, Myanmar. Type locality: Sitang and other Burma rivers.

30.0cm (12ins)

23-26°C (72-79°F)

6.0-7.0.

Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf.